LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Protect kids

Sunday

Dec 16, 2012 at 10:17 PMDec 16, 2012 at 10:18 PM

No class, race or area of town is immune to the effects of child abuse and neglect in America. While many organizations go above and beyond to serve and protect America’s children, the often unknown facts are that many cases of child abuse and neglect go unreported because of a lack of services, manpower and budget.

No class, race or area of town is immune to the effects of child abuse and neglect in America. While many organizations go above and beyond to serve and protect America’s children, the often unknown facts are that many cases of child abuse and neglect go unreported because of a lack of services, manpower and budget. According to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, in 2009 alone, roughly 1,770 children in the United States died from child abuse and neglect. Almost half of the number of children in America who die from abuse are under the age of 1, and more than 80 percent are under the age of 4. Annually, about 6 million children in the United States are referred to or placed in child protective services because of child abuse and neglect (www.opencongress.org, HR 3656, 2011).The Protect Our Kids Act is designed to educate, protect and serve children and families in order to prevent child abuse and neglect. It aims to create specialized departments in law enforcement focused on investigating child abuse and neglect cases and bringing offenders to justice, make it a felony to conceal the death of a child, create a new crime of aggravated murder of a child with a sentence of life without parole and expand existing laws making it a crime to cause physical injury to children under the age of 14.If this act is enacted, it also will make it a felony to fail to report a child missing after 24 hours, to obstruct the location of a missing child, create the crime of child endangerment from cruel and sadistic punishment and increase penalties for repeat offenders. It also would create and provide educational, financial, mental and emotional support to lower-income families, single mothers and pregnant teens. Unfortunately, the prognosis of this act being enacted is at 2 percent because of the fact that of the 13 percent of Senate bills that made it past committee between 2009 and 2010, only 3 percent were enacted. That is why it is crucial to support the Protect Our Kids Act.Stephanie WullimanGadsden

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